Grand Slam on the Atlantic Queen Sunday

Today started out a little slow, as it seemed like we were searching for marine life for awhile. But then we spotted a pod of Atlantic white-sided dolphins. They were doing so much splashing at the surface that we could see them from a good distance away. Once we got into the pod of about 100-150 dolphins, there was lots of activity - dolphins charging through the water, and a number of seabirds (including greater shearwaters and gannets) plunging in to get the leftovers! It was an exciting way to start the trip!

Atlantic white-sided dolphin

Surfing dolphin!

Then, more cruising. All this cruising seemed strange after having whales fairly close to shore recently, but it was a beautiful day for a boat ride. After we got about 24 miles offshore, we were rewarded with plenty of whales - a minke, then a pair of fin whales pretty close (with blows from another 8 or so fin whales out in the distance!).

One of the fin whales

Our last sighting was one of this summer's favorite humpback whales - a male named Tigris. Tigris has been seen many times this summer, and lately he seems to be the one humpback that sticks around, even if there aren't any others! All in all, 4 species makes for a grand slam for us (what we call 4 species seen on one trip), something those of us working on the boat always love!


While humpbacks seem to have scattered lately, we are seeing tons of fin whales. Sure, they don't have a majestic tail that comes out when they dive, but somehow seeing a sleek, 70 foot whale near the boat always takes my breath away. I feel like we're so lucky to see these whales - an endangered species - as often as we do!

Here's the dramatic sky when we left!

Thanks to those who came aboard today, and a special thanks to Dan Cawley, our volunteer and David MacLaren and his students from Merrimack College in Andover who helped out with education, data collection and whale spotting today!


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Sunday on the Prince of Whales- Newburyport

What makes a good trip? Several of our guests today asked me if today was a good trip. I think that question is very personal and the answer is based on your expectations. If you expect to venture 20 miles offshore to see a specific whale do a specific behavior, then you are bound to be disappointed. If you appreciate nature for its wildness and unpredictability, then you will certainly have a great trip!

Today was a day where, admittedly, the whales were not the stars of the "show". We saw 7 species of ocean-dwelling life, and the 2 species of large whales, minke and finback whales, were a bit elusive. However, we did find 2 awesome ocean sunfish, a basking shark, some groups of bluefin tuna, as well as a couple pods of harbor porpoises, and a fabulous pod of Atlantic white sided dolphins! The sea conditions were truly perfect today for viewing marine life close to the boat. We could see the dolphins, sunfish and shark clearly through the glassy water!

Below are just a few of the images I took today of the variety of marine life we found.

Ocean sunfish

Atlantic white sided dolphin trio

Pod of Atlantic white sided dolphins

Atlantic white sided dolphin mother/calf pair

Tern

Tern on a log

Feeding frenzy with dolphins, terns and shearwaters

Basking Shark

Fin whale chevron pattern

Fin whale dorsal fin

So today, when you asked me if today was a good trip, I instantly said yes. The variety of life was outstanding and shows the complexity of a healthy ocean ecosystem.


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A Bird and Whale Success on the Granite State

An all day bird trip yesterday provided ample time to do some exploring out towards Jeffreys Ledge in search of birds (and whales)! We found plenty of all critters including grand slams of shearwaters and whales in the state of NH. As for our birds we had 3 species of jaegers (parasitic, long-tailed, and pomarine) with a picture of a parasitic and a long-tailed (with a greater shearwater) pictured below. Our shearwaters included sooty, greater, cory's, and manx, as well as juvenile red-necked phalaropes. For those of you interested in the full list feel free to check out the NH Birding List online since we had lots of other birds :) Now onto the whales. . .

A great day for sighting whale activity which thankfully was paired up nicely with a lot of our bird activity so everyone on board was having a good time! Our grand slam of whales included 20+ Fin whales, 5 Humpback whales, 150 Atlantic white-sided dolphins, 4 Minke whales, and even a handful of Harbor porpoise. We also saw two Ocean sunfish (one breached!) and 1 Basking shark. Our basking shark was a nice surprise considering our last sighting of this species was way back on June 20th.

It was great being able to spend the whole day out on the water and check out some of the offshore areas we have not gotten a chance to check out during our normal whale watches. Fin whales seemed to be everywhere, with a lot of them lunge feeding at the surface. Here a few of the many individual Fin whales we had during our trip. Can you see slight differences in all the dorsal fins as far as shape and size? That is one way of distinguishing individual Fin whales apart.

As for our Humpback whales we got some close looks at both Flask and Spinnaker and passed by Tigris. Flask was bubble feeding which got some of our birders excited with all the bubbles!Spinnaker, pictured below, was a great find considering this whale hasn't been seen on Jeffreys Ledge since last year. Our dolphins were spread out over a large area allowing everyone on the boat to get some great views of these whales playing around the boat.

A beautiful day to be out on the water and many many thanks to our great friends from NH Audubon for sponsoring and leading the trip. Always great to have you all on board with us and getting all of us on so many different birds!

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Tuesday on the Prince of Whales

What a day today was, "A GRAND SLAM" We started off with 2 harbor seals resting in the Merrimac, looking very cute and relaxed. We also had harbor porpoise in two different groups, they were being very good and giving us some nice looks, they normally are quite shy! The seas were calm, and a gentle breeze moved us to a Mola Mola (Ocean Sunfish) who again seemed to want to come over to the boat and meet us. In the distance a mother calf fin whale dropped by and we saw the enormous mom with what looked like a small calf but are quite big 21 feet when they are born. There were several other finners around which came nice and close to the boat, as seen by the photo! We ended the day with Atlantic White Sided Dolphin. I also learned an awful lot about birds today thanks to Dave Larson of the Massachusetts Audubon Society. Thanks to Vanessa who adopted "Flask" today and all the other passengers who supported our efforts today!

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Labor Day on the Prince of Whales

What a beautiful Labor Day! After yesterday's less-than-idea sea conditions, we lucked out with glassy calm seas and sunny skies today! What a difference a day makes!

We encountered our 3rd ocean sunfish of the season- look how calm that water is! Ocean sunfish are the largest species of bony fish in the world! This big critter had not qualms about being right beside our boat!

Ocean sunfish (Mola mola)

A bit further off shore we found 8 fin whales nearby, plus a few more a bit further away!
This one below has yet to be ID'ed but has some distinctive scars on its peduncle (the area just in front of the flukes), likely caused by an entanglement.
With all of the fin whales around, at one point we had a whale coming right at us!! (below)


Once we got along side a fin whale, we had excellent looks at the white lower jaw on the whale's right side:

Of great excitement for me, a self proclaimed whale geek, we found a mother/calf pair of fin whales! The interesting fact about this sighting was the ID of the mother. She is fin whale #0532, who we saw last week, but didn't see her calf anywhere near by. We had no idea she was a mom, or even a female, until today!!

Fin whale calf

Fin whale mom, #0532

As we continued on, several humpback whales showed up. Solas, an 8 year old whale, was feeding in its own unique style and even blew a bubble net right next to the boat (much to our surprise) as we were waiting for it to surface!

Solas' flukes

Solas bubble net feeding!

Flask, our adoptable whale, also made an appearance and did a bit of feeding.

Flask

Also, a new humpback visitor was in the area today- Lobo! Lobo was born in 2005 to a whale named Nine, and to my knowledge has not been seen on Jeffreys Ledge before today!

What an awesome day of whale activity and great passengers! Thanks so much for your engaging questions, and my apologies to those of you on the lower deck whom I didn't have time to talk with! If you have any questions, feel free to comment here or email me directly!


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Labor Day on the Atlantic Queen

Crazy fin whales today, they were chin breaching, my photo's are not the best but you can see the enormous white water left behind after there huge heads met the surface of the water! We also had a great time with Solas, she was kick feeding and doing it quite close to the boat as you can see by her tail stock in the photo. She also did some open mouth feeding and made some wonderful bubble clouds. Lastly we saw "Flask" he was being a bit shy but we still saw his distinctive white tail. Thank you to Katy and Dick Frailick who have volunteered the past two years on the Atlantic Queen, they have been a pleasure to work with! Thanks to all who supported our efforts today as well.

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Sunday's Atlantic Queen Trip

The seas were a bit rough today, but we had some great passengers aboard, and lots of whales, which made it well worth the trip! There were many fin whales around - we saw at least 8 of these animals, who are the second-largest species on Earth! At one point, a fin whale was alongside the left side of the boat, and we got great looks at its white lower jaw and its swirly light gray chevron. As was the case so many other times this season, it seemed like there were blows anytime I looked out to the horizon!

Fin Whale

We also spent time with Valley, a female humpback (first sighted in 1985) we've seen several times this summer. Valley's been absent from our area for a couple weeks, so it was nice to see her again. Valley is very distinctive - she doesn't have a dorsal fin, and she also has a v-shaped notch in her fluke, which we finally got to see right before we left!

Valley Taking a Dive

Valley's Dorsal Fin (or Lack Thereof)

Thanks to those who joined us and I hope you enjoyed the rest of your holiday weekend! Thanks again to our volunteer Dan for all his help, and for Robyn Sealock, one of our Adopt-a-Beach team leaders who was aboard today. Robyn, along with friends and family, has been cleaning Bass Beach in North Hampton for about 3 years now, and I greatly appreciate her help with that and with all the data entry she's helped with this summer!

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